ਗਿੱਦੜਬਾਹਾਗਿੱਦੜਬਾਹਾ

Where is Gidderbaha?

Gidderbaha is a town and municipal council in ਸ੍ਰੀ ਮੁਕਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It is the headquarters of Gidderbaha tehsil in the western part of the district, about 30 km southwest of Bathinda and 19 km beyond ਮਲੋਟ on National Highway 7 towards Firozpur, and it serves a countryside of cotton and paddy villages that looks to the town for its courts, its colleges and its trains.

Geography and people

The 2011 census counted 45,370 people in Gidderbaha, up from 36,598 in 2001 and 29,866 in 1991: 23,847 men and 21,523 women living in 8,892 households. The sex ratio was 903 women for every 1,000 men, and children up to the age of six numbered 5,285, about 11.65 per cent of the town. Literacy stood at 75.15 per cent, with men at 80.70 per cent and women at 69.04 per cent. By religion, the census counted 64.34 per cent Hindus and 33.42 per cent Sikhs. Scheduled Castes made up about 36 per cent of the town's people. The municipal area covers 11.92 square kilometres and the town council has 17 wards. Its PIN code is 152101.

The tehsil town

Gidderbaha tehsil covers 48 villages across some 654 square kilometres, and the 2011 census counted 222,937 people in the tehsil as a whole. The villages look to the town for the tehsil offices, the courts, the main grain market and the senior schools. Gidderbaha is one of the district's three tehsils, alongside Muktsar and Malout, and its villages run west from the town towards the Firozpur side of the district. Among the tehsil's villages covered on this site is ਕੋਟ ਭਾਈ, one of the large farming villages of the tract. The tehsil's best known shrine stands at Chhattiana village: Gurdwara Guptsar Sahib, associated with Guru Gobind Singh Ji's journey through this country in 1705 and 1706, which draws devotees from across the district.

History: Pepali, the jackal story and the six gates

Long before it was a town, the place was a small village called Pepali, named after an old pipal tree. Local tradition says Guru Gobind Singh Ji once visited the village and found its women troubled by a jackal (giddar) when they went to draw water from the well. On hearing that everyone in the village was married except the jackal, the Guru is said to have symbolically married the jackal to the pipal tree. Villagers renamed the place Giddar Vyahya, 'the jackal is married', and later British officials wrote the name as Giddarbaha, the spelling the town's gates were given.

In 1909 the British planned a new walled city here with six gates: the Clock House, City, Husnar, Bharu, Theri and Daula gates. The railway arrived in 1918, when a station was built near the Clock House gate on the Bathinda to Karachi line, splitting the old settlement from the new. The grain market that grew around the railway made the town a mandi, and it became the tehsil headquarters for the surrounding countryside.

Education in Gidderbaha

For a town of its size Gidderbaha carries a full spread of schools and colleges. Its colleges include MMD DAV College and Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, which take students from the town and the 48 villages of the tehsil for degrees that once meant a move to Bathinda or Ludhiana. The town's schools feed a steady stream of its young people into teaching, nursing, the forces and government service across Punjab.

The market town

Gidderbaha's work is the work of its fields. The town stands in the cotton and paddy belt of western Malwa, and its grain market takes in the kapas, wheat and paddy of the tehsil's 48 villages through the season. Commission agents, transporters, cotton and oil businesses and the shops of the bazaar all live off that trade, and the railway, which crosses the town on its way between Bathinda and Firozpur, was built to carry exactly this traffic. The municipal council, with its 17 wards, runs a town that has grown steadily with the trade: 29,866 people in 1991, 36,598 in 2001 and 45,370 in 2011, at an elevation of about 189 metres on the flat Malwa plain.

The snuff town

Gidderbaha is known across India for its snuff. The town is one of the country's largest producers of snuff and naswar, and several well-known brands, including Six Photo and 5 Photo snuff, trace their origin here; the Six Photo factory still operates in the town. The trade stands alongside the grain market as the second pillar of the town's name, and between them they explain why a town of this size is known far beyond its district.

Shrines and landmarks

Religious life centres on the town's temples and gurdwaras. The Jai Maa Mahakali Mandir near the railway station, established in 1982, draws devotees from across the region, while Shree Durga Mandir, Gurdwara Dasvin Patshah and Gurudwara Nanaksar Sahib are well-known local shrines. The dera of Baba Ganga Ram Ji near Husnar village, about 3 km away, is a revered spot in the area, and the municipal parks named for freedom fighter Comrade Chiranji Lal Dhir and Gurdev Singh Maan, the Clock House gate and the Baba Ganga Ram stadium are the town's own landmarks.

Sikh history runs deep around the town. The gurdwara at Theri Sahib, about 5 km out, is traditionally linked with a night halt of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and Gurdwara Guptsar Sahib at Chhattiana, 12 km away, is one of the area's most visited shrines. Badal village, about 12 km distant, is the ancestral home of the Badal political family.

Railway, roads and getting there

Giddarbaha railway station, opened in 1918, stands in the town on the Bathinda to Firozpur line of the Northern Railway, the line that carries the cotton belt's traffic between the two cities. By road, National Highway 7 links the town to Sri Muktsar Sahib town, Malout and Bathinda in one direction and towards Firozpur in the other, and buses run through the day to all of them. The bus stand sits close to the station near the Clock House gate. The district headquarters town of ਸ੍ਰੀ ਮੁਕਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ is the natural onward hub for the villages of the tehsil.

Politics and famous names

The town gives its name to Assembly constituency number 84, which falls in the Faridkot Lok Sabha seat. Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab's long-serving former chief minister, represented it for five consecutive terms from 1969 to 1985, and his nephew Manpreet Singh Badal, a former Punjab finance minister, held it from 1995 to 2007. Amrinder Singh Raja Warring of the Congress won the seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022 before moving to the Lok Sabha from Ludhiana in 2024. The November 2024 by-election was won by the Aam Aadmi Party's Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who beat the Congress candidate Amrita Warring by 21,969 votes.

The town has produced several public figures. Singers Gurdas Maan, Ashok Masti and Hakam Sufi, music writer Jaani, comedian Mehar Mittal, and engineer Vijay K. Dhir, a former dean of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, all trace their roots to Gidderbaha.

What is Gidderbaha known for?

Gidderbaha is known across India for its snuff: it is one of the country's largest snuff and naswar producing towns, and brands such as Six Photo and 5 Photo began here. In Sri Muktsar Sahib district it is known as the tehsil headquarters town of its western countryside: the place where 48 villages bring their cotton and grain, where the Bathinda to Firozpur trains stop, and where colleges such as MMD DAV College take the tehsil's students. Its old city still keeps the six gates of the walled town planned in 1909, and devotees also know the tehsil for Gurdwara Guptsar Sahib at Chhattiana.

What is the population of Gidderbaha?

The population of Gidderbaha was 45,370 at the 2011 census, 23,847 men and 21,523 women in 8,892 households. It had grown from 29,866 in 1991 and 36,598 in 2001.

How many villages are in Gidderbaha tehsil?

Gidderbaha tehsil has 48 villages, and the 2011 census counted 222,937 people in the tehsil. The town of Gidderbaha is its headquarters and its main market and railway centre.